Asheville On Bikes

Bicycle Infrastructure on Charlotte St – Public Meeting

ashevilleonbikes — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 16:27:23 +0000

Members of the community will have an opportunity to hear from City of Asheville Transportation Department staff about a concept for changing the traffic pattern for the Charlotte Street Corridor between the I-240 bridge and the intersection with Edwin Place at a Community meeting on Mon. Feb. 6 at 6:30 p.m. in the auditorium of the Jewish Community Center on Charlotte Street.

Monday, February 6, 2012

6:30 – 7:30 PM

Asheville Jewish Community Center

236 Charlotte St, Asheville, NC 28801

http://www.facebook.com/events/198601883571865/

Help AoB Plan for the Future

ashevilleonbikes — Sat, 10 Dec 2011 16:40:08 +0000

Asheville on Bikes is taking some time to reflect on how to better serve the Asheville community through a strategic planning process. Our organization started six years ago and since then, we’ve picked up more then a few supports and participants. We want the keep the movement rolling forward and we need your help.

We’re asking your to take five minutes or so to complete this online survey. This will let us know what you’re thinking about Asheville, the cycling community and Asheville on Bikes.

Click here to take the survey

- Thank you!

Confident Commuter: Skills Class for Cyclists

ashevilleonbikes — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 01:50:37 +0000

Asheville’s League of American Cyclist-Certified instructors will lead an afternoon class on bicycle commuting skills on Saturday, December 10th. Combining classroom discussions with outdoor biking lessons, the course hopes to increase confidence in cyclists of all levels.

View the class flyer here

Course topics will include:

-Bike and Equipment Choices

-Route Selection & Backup Plans

-Drive Your Bike (Vehicular Cycling)

-Inclement Weather –Be Prepared

-Bicyclist Friendly Workplaces

-Winter Cycling –Gear and Safety

Saturday, December 10th

4:30 – 7:00 PM

200 College St

Cost is $10 for course materials

Email BuncombeBikeEd@gmail.com to receive more info

AoB looks to create a better bicycling future in WNC

ashevilleonbikes — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 01:42:22 +0000

As this article in the Citizen-Times reports, the municipalities and stakeholders from Western North Carolina are beginning to craft a Regional Bike Plan, and AoB will be there! The group hopes to connect existing bike plans and bike routes throughout WNC, resulting in a wide web of connectivity throughout our mountains.

The process starts this week with a kickoff event in Waynesville, and we’ll be sure to keep updated with the goings-on. Visit the French Broad MPO site to learn more, and take the online survey to provide feedback on what kind of bicycle improvements you would like to see in the region.

Ride In the Holiday Parade!

ashevilleonbikes — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 02:24:28 +0000

Asheville on Bikes is getting ready to take the city’s annual Holiday Parade by storm, and you can join us. It’s happening this Saturday, November 19th. Our theme this year is “Rock Through the Ages, Roll Through the Streets, which means we’ll all dress up as an iconic musician, as we ride the streets of the parade route. The parade is actually the first event AoB participated in, and we won an award for best float, so the stakes are high. If that’s not enough, there will be llamas, dancing, prancing, and Santa! Santa! Santa!

Meet us at 10:30am on South Charlotte Street (just east of Biltmore, below the Co-Op and Barleys). AoB is float #14. At 11:00 Am we’ll set off with the whole parade on a short route through downtown. Right after the parade, come to Pack Park to visit with Santa, meet his reindeer, and enjoy some special holiday fun!

RSVP on Facebook

http://www.ashevilleparade.org/

Greenway Master Plan – Give Your Input

ashevilleonbikes — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 14:46:55 +0000

Connect Buncombe is currently working on a Greenways and Trails Master Plan, and wants your input.

This survey is the first step in public involvement as they generate key themes and ideas for the plan. They will be conducting specific community outreach throughout Buncombe County to gather more ideas. They also want to gather input from visitors to the region, so please forward this along to anyone who may be interested.

Take the survey!

Watch the video!

Get There Asheville – City Council Candidates Forum

ashevilleonbikes — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 14:39:58 +0000

Get There Asheville announces General Election Candidates forum;

The Step 2 It!

Asheville City Council candidates take on multimodal transportation issues

Thursday November 3rd

7:00 – 9:00 PM

Asheville Design Center – 8 College St, downtown

More info here

2011 General Election Voting Has Started

Voters are encouraged to vote; Early one-stop voting goes from Oct. 20th – Nov. 5th at the Buncombe County Board of Elections. City Council Candidate’s transportation positions are available for voters to read. Get There Asheville then wants to and all your friends to go vote for the candidate that will build a livable, affordable, and sustainable Asheville.

This election needs to be one where pedestrians, cyclists and bus riders in our city win. A robust, multi-modal transportation network addresses issues critical to our region and our nation’s future; job creation, economic sustainability, carbon emissions reduction, livable communities, obesity and health challenges relate to transportation options.

Pumpkin Pedaller – Saturday October 29th!!!

ashevilleonbikes — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 13:57:30 +0000

Get your costumes ready for your favorite bike ride of the year! The annual Pumpkin Pedaller is happening Saturday, October 29th, and we have a few new tricks ready to make it our best one yet!

We’re adding a short, family-friendly ride to bring the kids along. The three-mile route will be safe, slow and appropriate for all ages. The ride leaves from the Stephens-Lee Rec Center (30 George Washington Carver Ave) at 3:00pm, and will finish in time to join the main ride at 4:00, and still take the kids trick-or-treating.

The main ride begins at City Hall at 4:00, winds throughout Asheville and ends at the Wedge.

RSVP on Facebook

Moving Planet & 350.org Comes to Asheville

ashevilleonbikes — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 14:04:28 +0000

Moving Planet is a day of action focusing on the climate crisis, taking place in cities around the world on September 24th. It’s billed as a worldwide rally to demand solutions, to make our voices heard to move beyond fossil fuels.

Spearheaded internationally by the folks at 350.org, and locally by the WNC Alliance and UNCA, there will be a series of informative and fun events, free for all to attend. Asheville on Bikes wants you to show up, on your bike of course. We’re helping organize group rides from the different locations (Downtown to West Asheville, and then UNCA), and we’re setting up bike corrals to look after your ride while you check it all out.

We’ll start at a Transportation Planning Basics Workshop downtown, after a short rally we’ll head to West Asheville to check out the Burton Street Agricultural Fair, and then on to UNCA for a daylong rally of bands, speakers, and demonstrations. It all starts at noon from the First Presbyterian Church downtown. Get all the details here and for more info, check out the video below and 350.org founder Bill McKibben’s passionate invite to this movement:

Dear friends,

The first few months of this year have been among the most exciting on record–people in half a dozen countries have stood bravely up for their rights. Many of them have won, overthrowing dictatorships that date back decades.

Our 350.org colleagues in those countries have–predictably–been a big part of the freedom movement, and they’ve been keeping us up to date on how they’re using everything from Twitter to graffiti art to spread the word. Most of all they keep saying how wonderful it finally feels to be in motion: to be marching, running, moving after years of being stuck in the same tired place.

That feeling of being stuck is how we’ve felt in the climate movement for years now. The scientists have told us why we must change–and every record flood and heat wave adds to their message. The engineers have told us how we can change, as they’ve quickly turned windmills and solar panels from promising experiments into tested technology. The only thing now preventing change is the hold of the financially powerful status quo–all those coal and oil barons, and their friends in high government places, keeping us stuck in the polluting mud of inaction.

This year is going to be about movement in every sense of the word. Not just the big shoulder-to-shoulder campaign we’ve built together across the world these last two years, but also actual, powerful, fun dramatic movement in the streets — putting into action our demand for a future free from fossil fuels and dangerous climate change.

Circle September 24 on your calendar–that’s the day for what we’re calling Moving Planet: a day to move beyond fossil fuels.

  On 24 September we’ll be figuring out the most meaningful ways to make the climate message move, literally. We’ll show that we can use our hands, our feet, and our hearts to spur real change. In many places, people will ride bicycles, one of the few tools used by both affluent and poor people around the world. Other places people will be marching, dancing, running, or kayaking, or skateboarding. Imagine the spectacle: thousands of people encircling national capitals, state houses, city halls.

But we won’t just be cycling or marching–we’ll also be delivering a strong set of demands that can have real political impact. They’ll differ from one country to the next, of course, because the steps we need to take depend on how much fossil fuel we already use.

To make this political impact we need to start building momentum now. In the US, 10,000 young leaders got the ball rolling at the Power Shift 2011 summit and rally in Washington, DC last weekend. We’ll build this momentum together over the next five months, with hard-hitting online campaigns, focused grassroots organizing at the local level, and climate leadership workshops around the world.

Our friends in Tunisia, Egypt, and throughout the Middle East have proven that change can come quickly. The greatest achievements have been without violence, but not without sacrifice. They’ve done it with bravery, and also good humor; with the internet and also with face-to-face organizing. They’ve got things unstuck in countries that seemed rusted shut. They’re our inspiration for the months ahead.

Onwards,

Bill McKibben

P.S. While we’re gearing up for Moving Planet, we’re also hard at work on other focused campaigns around the world, like the U.S. Chamber Doesn’t Speak for Me campaign I described in in my speech Powershift 2011. But on 24 September, we will get to combine our local actions into something very big and very beautiful–and put the powers that be on notice that the dirty status quo won’t hold much longer.

Clips of Faith – Craft Beer + Craft Films Coming to Asheville

ashevilleonbikes — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 02:55:21 +0000

New Belgium Brewery is once again bringing their Clips of Faith film series to Asheville this year. We hope you saw or heard about last year’s installment, with hundreds of bike and beer-loving folks filling Pack Square Park. You can expect a showing of a handful of homemade short films on a bunch of topics, and the chance to sip or gulp a handful of beers from New Belgium, including some not yet available in stores!

Admission is free for the films and activities, there will be local food for sale and beer tastings will cost a bit, but the proceeds stay here with Asheville on Bikes, supporting our advocacy and merriment efforts. As always, your favorite AoB volunteers will be on hand to carefully park your bike in one of the last Bike Corrals of the summer.

Clips of Faith Beer and Film Tour

Friday, September 9th

7:00 – 10:00PM

Pack Square Park, in front of City Hall

FREE!

More info: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=149542935126654